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\lhead{\textbf{Research Proposal}}
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\lfoot{Engels, Yakimov}
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\rfoot{\textit{Jan 08, 2012}}


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\title{\textbf{GreenSONAR: A multi-domain energy profiling system based on perfSONAR}}
\author{\textit{Todor Yakimov, Lutz Engels}}
\date{Jan 08, 2012}

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\section{Introduction}
Within \emph{National Research and Education Networks} (NRENs) distributed \emph{Multi-Domain Monitoring} (MDM) systems exist and enable interesting usage scenario. 
Multi-domain knowledge of energy consumption on the other hand is not readily available; while this is actually highly needed if one wants to use the network infrastructures efficiently and sustainably. 
\\
One of these distributed MDM systems is perfSONAR\footnote{www.perfsonar.net} 
. It is adopted in several NRENs, but lacks energy knowledge in all cases. By implementing means to read and distribute energy metrics, one could extend perfSONAR to GreenSONAR. By conducting this research we want to create the base for routing/switching decisions based on energy consumption, to find the 'greenest path'~\cite{EDL}. In the long-term, we would also like to see the application of such systems throughout public domains.
\\
\\
This project examines how computer networks can be transformed into energy-aware systems. For the purpose, current MDM solutions and their capabilities are examined. An adapted form of perfSONAR that includes energy-aware metrics is designed. Finally, attention is given as to how effective the resulting modifications are in the context of green path selection and peak power management.


\subsection{Research Questions}
The main research question of the project follows. Subsequent research questions have been defined as per the different phases of the project:
\\
\\
\emph{"What metrics need to be considered in order to build energy profiles of networking devices and how can such data be published by using distributed multi-domain monitoring systems."}
\\
\\
Specifically saying:
\\
\emph{"Is perfSONAR-PS a suitable architecture to achieve energy profiling of computational devices, and what are the necessary steps to be undertaken to evolve perfSONAR-PS in a system we can call 'GreenSONAR'?"}


\subsection{Related Work}
Network monitoring has been a pervasive topic throughout recent years~\cite{mdm}. With various monitoring tools in place that fall underneath the administration of different organizations, rise is given to questions such as: How should the distribution of such data be achieved by bypassing the need for human intervention and administrative restrictions?
\\
perfSONAR aims to ease this process by providing a distributed, middleware-controlled framework meant to operate in a multi-domain environment. It provides the necessary architectural framework and communication protocols for publishing network statistics collected by various tools part of a given domain to all other perfSONAR applications alike~\cite{composition}~\cite{soa}.
\\
The current network monitoring tools perfSONAR can interface with are well-known software products such as Nagios, Cacti and Iperf. It takes advantage of those tools, called \emph{Publishers} in the scope of perfSONAR, by defining a service-oriented architecture. The subservice responsible for collecting published data is called a \emph{Measurement Point} (MP). A \emph{Measurement Archive} (MA) takes care of saving this data and its \emph{Lookup Service} (LS) allows the discovery of other perfSONAR instances thereby allowing the indirect publishing of data on a multi-domain basis. 
\\
Such functionality is useful within the scope of topics as traffic load-balancing and bandwidth optimization. However in recent years, the topic of being $CO_{2}$ aware has become a major concern. It is because of this, that there is an urgent need for network monitoring tools to include the tracking of energy-related metrics. As a result, applications would be able to perform green path selection decisions and route their traffic through sites that might be operating in a low power state.
\\
Instrumenting perfSONAR to also perform energy profiling would require the inclusion of an energy-aware semantic model. Prior research in the area has yielded the Energy Description Language (EDL)~\cite{EDL}.

\section{Scope}
Although this has high applicability within any domain, efforts will be concentrated on equipment within NREN networks, respectively ESnet and GEANT with focus on ESnet's perfSONAR implementation (perfSONAR-PS) as the MDM system. However, administrative limitation exist in using those networks and therefore the DAS-4 cluster at The University of Amsterdam will be used instead.

\section{Approach}
The work will be logically divided into three phases:

\subsection*{Phase 1 - Literature study}\label{sec:phase1}
Throughout the phase, current MDM solutions and their capabilities were examined. Afterwards, focus was given to:
\begin{itemize}
\item examining what energy consumption models have been already defined for tracking the energy profile of computational devices
\item studying perfSONAR-PS's MP and MA software architectures with the purpose of integrating energy consumption metrics and their retrieval 
\end{itemize}

\subsection*{Phase 2 - System design}
A test installation of perfSONAR-PS will be performed either on the DAS-4 network or on the SNE lab equipment. Two key aspects of the software will be examined as research subquestion:
\\
\\
\emph{"What is the feasibility of integrating energy consumption metrics such as those offered by the EDL~\cite{EDL} model within perfSONAR-PS?"} \\
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\emph{"Is it possible to use just any RRD database with perfSONAR-PS for the purpose of distributing already published data from Power Distribution Units (PDUs) in the DAS-4 network?"} 
\\
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The phase will have as a deliverable the adjusted perfSONAR-PS's MA and MP services. The adjustments will encompass the inclusion of energy-aware metrics within the MP service. Furthermore, it examines how the MA service should be modified so that the newly introduced metrics can be stored.  
\subsection*{Phase 3 - Evaluation}
Work carried out throughout the previous phases aims to instrument perfSONAR-PS for energy profiling. With this in place, during the remaining time, attention will be given as to how effective the resulting modifications are in the context of \emph{green path selection}\cite{EDL} and \emph{peak power management}\cite{EDL}.

\section{Requirements}
The successful completion of the project has at its heart a very basic set of prerequisites. We acquired DAS-4 accounts for installing the software tools whose selection will be made during \emph{\nameref{sec:phase1}}. In addition to the publicly available perfSONAR-PS distribution, we would also need access to perfSONAR-PS's MP and MA software documentation. Finally, administrative access to networking gear and \emph{Power Distribution Units} (PDUs) in the DAS-4 network would be needed during Phase 1.

\section{Planning}

\begin{tabular}{ | l | l | l | p{5cm} |}
\hline
Date & Task \\ \hline
Week 1 & Phase 1 - Orientation \& Literature study\\ \hline
Week 2, 3 & Phase 2 - System design\\ \hline
Week 4 & Phase 3 - Evaluation\\ \hline
Week 5 & Finishing final paper and work on the presentation \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

\begin{thebibliography}{10}

\bibitem{EDL} H. Zhu, K. van der Veldt, P. Grosso, Z. Zhao, X. Liao and C. de Laat,
``Energy-aware semantic modeling in large scale infrastructures'',
Greencom 2012: Green Computing and Communications, 2012

\bibitem{mdm}Jeff W. Boote, E. L. Boyd, J. Durand, A. Hanemann, L. Kudarimoti, R. Łapacz, N. Simar and S. Trocha, 
``Towards multi-domain monitoring for the European research networks'', 2005

\bibitem{composition} A. Hanemann, A. Liakopoulos, M. Molina and D. M. Swany,
``A Study on Network Performance Metrics and their Composition'',
TNC 2006, 2006

\bibitem{soa} L. Sampaio, I. Koga, R. Costa, H. Monteiro, F. Vetter, G. Fernandes, M. Vetter and J. Monteiro, 
``Implementing and Deploying Network Monitoring Service Oriented Architectures: Brazilian National Education and Research Network Measurement Experiments'', Brazil, September 2007

\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}

